Best of the East

I lied.

Well not entirely but I changed the format of my recipe. I originally intended to follow the style of the Chinese Red Cooking technique but when I discovered that rock sugar was a primary ingredient - I didn’t want to buy it. What am I going to do with the remaining bag of sugar? I hate buying something that I know I’ll never use again or, if I do, it won’t be until a long, long while. By that time, the rock sugar would probably re-solidify into a brick. I then thought to use brown sugar but instead of brown sugar, I recalled an ingredient I haven’t used in a while and was itching for a recipe to utilize its flavor - tamarind.

I like tamarind. It has a complex yet complimenting flavor of a citrus-esque fruit crossed with a raisin or date. With that in mind, one of its alternative names is the “Indian date” but Asia is not the sole provider nor enjoyer of the tamarind. It’s quite popular in a variety of nations such as Africa, where its medicinal characteristics are maximized in their cuisine, Latin America, Greece, and parts of the tropics. The unripe pulp can also be used as the ripened pulp but it contains more tart. Tamarind is available in an assortment of ways: as pods, blocks of paste, as candy (yummy stuff!), jams, syrups (imagine that on pancakes), and drinks. I bet tamarind ice cream isn’t that far off either.

In addition to tamarind in this recipe, I used a variety of ingredients to instate the flavors of Asia: baby corn, shitake mushrooms, cassava, and ube/batata AKA the purple potato seasoned with Chinese five spices. Together these made a hearty and absolutely fantastic stew which allowed me to appreciate chicken more. Even though I eat meat again, I still lean heavily towards vegetarianism. I don’t know why but I just favor eating beans or fish over chicken or beef. Pork, on the other hand..oh god. I had a discussion with my neighbor too; it’s just something about pork that has you continuously craving it. This, I think, Ma Po Tofu is one of my favorite dishes in Chinese cuisine.

The key in this dish to have a tender-juicy-melt-in-your-mouth-chicken is the brine. Salt breaks down the muscles in the meat - best in chicken - and retains the moisture within the meat. The difference between marinades and brines is the amount of salt. A marinade just allows the meat to absorb the flavor while the brine breaks it down similar to how lemon juice can cook raw products if left alone with it for an extensive period of time. Not only that, the mixture is first heated to dissolve the salt prior to allowing the meat to soak. A marinade is just thrown together or used as a baste. If it’s too salty for your tastes, add sugar, honey or even mirin under these circumstances but the amount of salt has to surpass that of the water. You can even wash off the chicken prior to adding it to the pot since the flavors would be absorbed into the meat, not just on top.

So I present to you, my Asian inspired stew with my favorite vegetables. Feel free to alternate with vegetables but normally in a stew, corn, carrots and potatoes are standard. I bet pork would taste just as good in this as well..Mm..Pork…

Asian Hot Pot

Brine
2 tsp cracked black pepper
6 tbsp salt
2 tsp wasabi powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
¼ cup water or broth

1 chicken breast, cut into 1 inch chunks

2-3 scallions, sliced thin on a bias

1 small cassava, cut into ½ inch chunks

1 small batata/ube (purple potato) cut into ½ inch chunks
7 small dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted & quartered
6 baby corn spears, cut into chunks
¼ of a large carrot, ½ inch chunks

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Shao Hsing wine

1 tbsp tamarind pulp

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups stock or broth
4-5 pieces of dried orange peel or 2 tsp orange zest
1 tbsp Chinese five spices, separated

A few cilantro leaves, torn
Salt to taste

First, combine the ingredients for the brine in a small pot and bring to a rolling boil. Allow the liquid to thoroughly cool before pouring it into a ziplock bag or other container and adding the chicken chunks for thirty minutes to an hour. In the case of a brine, less is better than more.

Once the chicken has enough marinating time, pour the chicken and extra marinade into a deep pan, pot, or dutch oven. Brown the chicken on medium high heat. Once the flesh obtains a brown hue deglaze the pan with the soy sauce and wine before adding the cassava, potato, tamarind pulp, orange peel, and one cup of the stock with ½ tbsp Five Spice powder. Cover and lower the heat to medium, cooking for ten to fifteen minutes or until the potato begins to become penetrable.

When this point is reached, add the mushrooms, carrots, corn and scallions with the remaining ½ tbsp of Five Spice Powder and ½ cup stock. Recover and cook for about ten minutes or until the potato is fork tender and cassava is entirely transparent.

Serve with a bowl of rice and as traditional in several parts of Asia, with the left over broth pour over any remaining rice to make a scrumptious congee.